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STSTWC Sends BestWishes
& Hopes
For a Far More Peaceful World
in 2007
Some Resolutions
In 2007 STSTWC will continue:
+ to be a broad-based group of local people with diverse political, religious and cultural views
+ to work locally, nationally and internationally with allies to build a better world without war
+ to oppose the illegal occupation of Iraq
+ to highlight how the so-called ‘war on terror’ is a form of state terrorism by which the USA, UK and other governments are undermining world peace, and specifically threatening Iraq, Syria, Iran, Cuba, DPRK and other countries
+ to expose the dishonesty of those attempting to justify violent and illegal acts in misleading ways
+ to demand apologies from those such as South Shields MP David Miliband who have misled the public by deceptive claims about such matters as Iraq’s alleged possession of ‘weapons of mass destruction’
+ to develop forms of alternative media and other ways of widening the range of political and cultural debate
+ to continue our series of ‘Silence Is Shame!' publications, with our next publication to be a forum-linked pamphlet early in the new year discussing progressive alternatives to the present depressing political scene – all contributions are welcome ...
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Lifting the ‘Veils of Deception[s]’ ...
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Reliable reports [see Lancet medical journal, etc] suggest some 100,000 Iraqi civilians, including tens of thousands of children and women, were slaughtered over several months during the 'Shock And Awe' attack phase [... and its after-math ...] of the U.S.-U.K.-led assault on Iraq, 20 March 2003 following ... [This might be regarded by ‘real’ Christians as a ‘massacre of the innocents’ that ‘out-Heroded Herod’ ...]
In the U.K. parliament on 18 March 2003, when the final vote sanctioning British involvement in the illegal attack took place, ‘the word’ in parliament was that if 200 Labour MPs rebelled against the government line, then Britain would disengage from the impending US-led war.
In the event around 130 Labour MPs rebelled - and Mr Blair and his cronies got support for their war-plans with Conservative Party and Ulster Unionist assistance.
The government concentrated its efforts of persuasion on Labour MPs known to be potential waverers - ignoring the people whom they knew could not by swayed.
The main tactic used was face-to-face meetings with Mr. Tony Blair himself - with Ms. Cherie Booth sometimes providing a support act - at which the prime minister and/or wife made direct person-to-person ‘trust me, there are weapons of mass destruction’ promises.
Waverers seemed to have been won over by Mr and Mrs Blair - because they wanted to trust them when they implied that Mr Blair 'knew something they did not know’, but could not reveal what it was for reasons of ‘secret intelligence’.
A number of MPs won over by Mr and Mrs Blair in this way now - justifiably - wonder whether they were 'hood-winked'.
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More than half a dozen supporters of South Tyneside Stop The War Coalition joined tens of thousands of anti-war activists from across Britain in Manchester on Saturday 23 September 2006.
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The 23 September event was the 15th national gathering over the last 5 years organized jointly by the Stop The War Coalition, the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmaent and the Muslim Association of Britain / British Muslim Initiative. It was said to be the biggest event of its kind ever held in Manchester.
Police said 20,000 people took part in the rally and march held on the eve of the Labour party conference in the city. Stop The War Coalition said the number of people present might have been as high as 100,000.
The themes of the event were:
Troops Out of Iraq;
Don't Attack Iran;
Hands off Lebanon;
No Trident Replacement.
About 1,250 police were on duty in the city centre that day. Police sources said the event was entirely peaceful.
A 'security cordon' was in place in central Manchester for the duration of the Labour party conference - attended by, at most, a few thousand people. The total cost of 'securing' the Labour conference was thought to be in excess of £4 million.
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Tyneside Stop the War Coalition Vigils
Tuesday 31_01_2006 and Saturday 04_02_2006
General Leaflet Statement:
The 100th British soldier has died in Iraq. The Military Families Against the War, families of many of those soldiers killed, have asked that the British people mark this day with protests and vigils.
It is important that this moment does not pass unnoticed and that we protest against these deaths and the thousands of deaths in Iraq which are a result of the unjust war and occupation planned and carried out by Bush and Blair for the lie that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction and was a threat to the US and Britain. This illegal occupation has continued for over 2 years. According to Iraq Coalition Casuatly Count besides the 100 British soldiers killed, 2057+ US soldiers have been killed and at least 15,220 have been wounded or maimed. 101 soldiers from other countries, 60 journalists and 278 contractors have been killed. The occupying powers have added the crime of not counting the civilian casualties in Iraq, however an estimate by the British Medical Journal put the deaths of Iraqi soldiers and civilians at 100,000 dead last year. Iraq body count gives reported civilian casualties in Iraq at a minimum of 26,931.
Statement by South Tyneside Stop the War Coalition:
To have your son, brother, husband, father killed in any war is a burden that must be hard to bear. However, when so many of the military families know as we do that the wars the British government is waging to annex and occupy counties like Afghanistan and Iraq, are unjust, when the war and occupation of Iraq is illegal how much more painful must that be. On this occasion it is right for us to come together to join with the military families in sharing their grief and their condemnation of the illegal war against Iraq - and its occupation. To mark as well not only the dead, but the hundreds of British soldiers that have been maimed or injured , figures which the MOD seems to keep as a closely guarded secret. Neither, can we stand here and condemn the death and injury of British soldiers without also the condemning the deaths of more than 100,000 Iraqis - the wholesale demolition of their country and their homeland by this illegal war and occupation. Our message to ourselves and to every one is - let us step up our work to bring the troops home. Thousands of British troops are being redeployed to Afghanistan. Let us organise to stop all these wars of occupation of other lands once and for all. As we speak the propaganda continues to demonise Iran and other countries as they did Iraq. Let us be clear also about this. The propaganda to dehumanise Muslims with cartoons. It is a prerequisite for genocide. Just as Hitler started by demonising the Jews with cartoons. How many thousands more will be killed in this state terror that has been justified in the name of fighting individual terror? Let us build on our most precious asset - our unity and our humanity, our self reliance on our own work to stop the wars and end the occupations and defend the rights of all the people.
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REMEMBRANCE, by Les Barker
I want to tell you of a dream that came to me one night;
I dreamed I saw a monument, an arch of purest white,
The purest, whitest arch atop the longest marble wall;
I saw when I moved closer that it bore no words at all.
I heard a sound behind me; as I turned, I caught my breath;
I saw a hooded figure and I knew that it was Death.
"Do you like my piece of sculpture? Let me tell you what it's for;
It's just one more memorial to those who die in war.
It's just one more memorial, like those in every town;
Once a year, you honour them; you stand with heads bowed down
In remembrance of the sacrifice of those who won't come back
From Paschendaele, Gallipoli, Vietnam and Iraq.
And so," he said, "this monument; as yet it bears no text;
A monument remembering the war that's coming next.
You'll come here and you'll read the names and touch the ones you know;
If ever you remembered.....you'd never let them go.
Look beside the wall; see, there's a mason standing by
To carve the names of sons and daughters sent away to die.
If ever you remembered, he'd not carve 'lest we forget'...
If ever you remembered; but you've not remembered yet."
I woke and Death was gone; and I swore that very night
That I would build a monument; an arch of purest white;
The purest, whitest arch atop the longest marble wall;
And strive for all my life to see it bears no words at all.
[tune: Roslin Castle]
South Tyneside Stop The War Coalition gratefully thanks Les Barker, a professional performance poet, for this contribution.
For more of Les's work visit: http://www.mrsackroyd.com/
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On the Importance of Discussion in the Anti-war Movement
[Talk given by Roger Nettleship, on behalf of South Tyneside Stop The War Coalition, at an open general forum meeting of Tyneside Stop The War Coalition, Quaker Meeting House, Newcastle, 3 April 2006.]
I think it is very important and valuable that we are having this forum today. And because of this I would just like to concentrate my remarks on the very important question of developing discussion in the anti-war movement.
Firstly, I would like to talk about the experience on this question in the South Tyneside Movement.
As you know we meet regularly once a week - since before the beginning of the attack on Iraq three years ago. Beside participating in the national events we have organised numerous events locally, meetings, forums and intervened in the general election to oppose the warmongers and their apologists.
However, what you see is that discussion has always been the starting point of any action and activities. So, it is important to see what is this discussion and what are its features.
If we are going to not only survive but build a movement, no force can act in the old way. We can no longer build movements of leaders and followers - of leaders that supposedly understand everything and followers that just carry things out. This is how the Tony Blairs of this world come to power and how the movement gets diverted.
The point of discussing is not getting some leader to impress us with what they know, the point is in order to start the discussion everyone has to familiarise themselves with events and topics. They have to look behind the news and events and do investigation.
On one level it is regularly talking over events each week as they happen and analysing them together to inform how we should intervene. This way people who take part in the discussion become involved in setting the policy of the movement and in carrying it out. This is why widening this discussion is so crucial to developing the movement.
In South Tyneside the starting point of the meetings has always been discussion, analysing events each week and it is in that context that the practical work is discussed, the content of leaflets, writing and distributing them and this is where planning interventions is made.
Of course, it is difficult to work in this new way and get over the old habits of leaving policy to the policy makers, of being very practical and just arguing over tactics, and not paying attention to involving people in discussion on what unites us, so that they consciously enhance and elaborate the policy of the movement. This is how people's initiative is released and they too think of better ways for the movement to develop its practical programme.
That we were able to develop, justify and plan a political programme to organise and finance an anti-war candidate during the General Election is testament to vitality of this method of work.
On another level, it is not just responding to events but setting the agenda and taking up an important theme that the movement should tackle in order move foreword to strengthen itself, and involving people in that. This is crucial to defeat the ideas of the warmongers, their justifications, their Islamaphobia, and so on - so as to bring the movement towards its goal and aims. It is getting as many people as possible to do some work on that and make presentations at the forums which in turn involves people in taking part in the discussion making their own contributions so everybody becomes a leader and an activist - instead of the old idea of leaders and followers.
Yes, not everyone will be as active as us, but involving people in the discussion means they will become active on some level.
So for example, Silence is Shame was born out of the fact nobody could be silent in taking a stand against criminal invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq and it began to involve every one in the group in ending that silence and becoming writer and publicist against the war. People who had never written anything now put pen to paper spoke and acted against the war.
We posed the questions such as why did they attack Iraq and the significance of February 15th [2003]. We posed the question that will the war on terror lead to world war, raising the crucial question of how will we bring about anti-war government and then looked at what were the real costs of war. These were all topics in which we tried to involve everyone in investigating and presenting considered views for discussion in the movement. We have done this once or twice a year in Forum form and then at other times when we produce the pamphlet so in all probably twice a year three at most in South Tyneside.
None of this precludes the fact that it is a coalition discussion and there are differing views which is itself, in this discussion and forum, turned into a strength by giving everyone more understanding of everyone's views and where they are coming from and builds real conscious unity.
I know that those that attended the last Forum in South Shields on February 15th [2006]from the Tyneside Stop the War Coalition spoke highly of this method of work. We are very enthusiastic that this forum is taking place today but I think we should develop this work in Newcastle. The Tyneside-wide work has its own dynamics and the importance of unity between the many political, religious and other organisations involved, but I think whilst some things are different the principle of involving people in discussing and setting the policy and agenda remains as well as carrying it out.
If we have an idea, that unites us regardless of any differing political ideas, or religious beliefs it is that understanding requires conscious participation of the individual, an act of finding out!
Thank you.
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On Saturday 22 July 2006 several hundred people took part in an emergency demonstration at the Monument, central Newcastle, to oppose the [U.S.-and-British-government-supported] Israeli attacks on Lebanon and Palestinian Gaza.
Similar demonstrations, demanding an immediate cease-fire, took place across Britain and around the World.
The rally was chaired by Peter Burnett of Palestinian Solidarity. Speakers included Clare Williams, Northern Regional Convenor of Unison, Mahmoud Kurdi, Chair of the Muslim Association of Britain North East, Roger Nettleship, South Tyneside Stop the War Coalition, Simon Hall, Tyneside Stop the War Coaltion, Roger Cox, Palestinian Solidairty North East, Yunus Bakhsh, Respect North East, and others.
Speakers expressed deep anger and concern over the very dangerous situation that has been created by Israel's actions - which follow the examples of the American-and-British-led invasions and occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq.
Speakers suggested the Big Powers might use the present crisis to attempt to justify other violent interventions in the Middle East, and to further threaten Syria and Iran.
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December 2006 letter to Shields Gazette
by Alan Trotter
Dear Sir
The warmongers are at it again, not content with slaughtering 655,000 Iraqis and sending 126 British military personal to their premature deaths, which incidentally has cost the British tax payer in excess of £5billion.
In Afghanistan we have lost 30 troops in the past six months and over 4,000 people have been killed in that country this year. These warmongers now want spend over £20 billion on replacing trident against the wishes of the British people, 54% of the population are against it and the TUC voted overwhelmingly against replacing it. This particular weapon of mass destruction will not help to create peace it will only serve to escalate global tensions, this money could be spent on a multitude of projects to benefit mankind and the environment at home and abroad, it is time to pull back from the brink of Armageddon and end the attack on humanity.
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